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A retailer, further, may produce a warranty from a small middleman,
who himself produces a warranty from another small
wholesale dealer, and so on until the chain of warranties becomes
involved and intricate. And this is specially the case if the milk
is derived from a large distributing agency having warranties
from each one of its collectors.
If the milk is derived from a farm, and if on each occasion of
transfer it passes unmixed through the hands of each intermediary,
then in such a case where the circumstances so warrant,
a prosecution may be successfully launched against the false
warrantor. This assumes that the farmer keeps accurate
systematic dated records of milking, and of the daily movements
of the churns, and is able and willing to give the Public Health
Department the fullest information.
It is not the custom in Finsbury to ask the milk vendor at the
time of sale, or at any other time, whether he holds a warranty,
unless the solicitor to the Council specially desires this information,
and requests that it shall be obtained.
It is believed that no useful purpose is generally served by
getting this information. It is recommended that even should it
be known that a milk vendor does possess a warranty a prosecution
should nevertheless be instituted where the milk does not
come up to the standards adopted by the Finsbury Borough
Council.
Sale of Food and Drugs Acts—In Finsbury 500 food
samples are taken for analysis each year, and, in addition, 100
samples of milk are taken in the evening, or on Sundays at irregular
and unusual hours. A rota is arranged at the beginning
of the year, but each inspector may also take samples at his own
discretion. All the shops in the Borough are sampled from time
to time—no exception is made. In 1913, 601 samples were taken,
of which 31, or 5.1 per cent, of the total were adulterated. The
tables given below show the number and nature of the samples
collected and the number adulterated in each case:—